Star Wars: The Force Awakens tipped for $3 billion box office

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has smashed through box office records and propelled the franchise to a new galaxy of wonder.

No disrespect to Jurassic World or Furious 7 – their successes are nothing to scoff at – but if they can have such massive debuts in 2015 and snag the third and fifth spots on the list of the highest-grossing movies of all time, then The Force Awakens will probably surpass them. Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst with Rentrak, told Variety on Tuesday that the seventh Star Wars film has the potential to exceed James Cameron’s “Avatar”.

The previous opening weekend record was actually just set by Jurassic World back in June with a take of $208 million. The film broke yet another record Monday, one that hadn’t been broken since Spider-Man 2 more than ten years ago.

The global take is particularly impressive, given that “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” will not open in the booming Chinese market until January 9. It will pass $700 million on Thursday and should move past $1 billion by the end of the week.

Directed by JJ Abrams and starring Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Andy Serkis, Oscar Isaac and Gwendoline Christie, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is out in cinemas now.

It’s likely that a large portion of this box offices is coming from people who saw the film a few times over the weekend, and there are sure to be many more who see the film over the holiday weekend to come.

“The Force Awakens” has been widely acclaimed by critics for evoking the spirit of adventure established by George Lucas’ original trilogy of films.

Competition will be significantly stronger starting on Christmas Day. Additionally, The Weintein Company launches Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” in 100 theaters and Fox opens Leonardo DiCaprio’s “The Revenant” in four.